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Pamela Lesser. Photo: Marko Junttila

Dissertation: Social Licence to Operate of Mining at the Societal Level

14.1.2025 10:03

In her doctoral dissertation, M.A. Pamela Lesser examines how the social licence to operate (SLO) of mining functions at the societal level. The research shows that societal SLO is actually not important for the local acceptance of a project and only has some influence in combination with local factors. The research corroborates that site level factors matter more to local communities and the public than do broader debates around societal benefits and costs.

The utility and power of the SLO concept continues to rest in its ability to strongly encourage mining companies to prioritise community interests.

– It is a powerful tool yet one that continues to have difficulty gaining traction in Europe, Pamela Lesser describes.

According to Lesser, it is important to explore whether having the broader public acceptance of the mining industry is the key to also having the acceptance of mining projects by local communities. Lesser’s research shows this is not the case, and in so doing, validates that SLO is a local concept with the most important relationship being between a host community and mining company.

– SLO at the societal scale is not important for the local acceptance of a mining project. What matters for acceptance is the community-company relationship and the ability to negotiate issues that happen at the site level. Societal acceptance plays a supportive role to community acceptance and is dependent on it.

Lesser and her colleagues has developed a Scalar SLO Model, which integrates within a single model the drivers of acceptance and loss at both the community and societal scales. One important difference between the Scalar SLO Model and other models is the incorporation of government as a foundational driver both at the community and societal scales. Previously, government was theorised to have a role in SLO, albeit undefined, only at scales beyond the community.

Lesser reconceptualizes the mechanism of SLO in a number of significant ways, the most important of which is that it consists of preconditions and industry drivers. At the societal level, the preconditions are comprised of government and associated legal and regulatory frameworks, which must be fulfilled before the industry drivers, meaning the relationship building between a community and company or industry and society, can begin.

– The fulfilment of both the preconditions and drivers should ideally lead to trust and acceptance. In Europe, citizens who view the preconditions as being sufficient do not really expect that much ‘extra’ from companies because the legislative and regulatory demands are already quite high.

Results are useful for both academics and practitioners

Globally SLO has been one of the most important tools in the last 25 years to reconcile the competing tensions surrounding mining. But not in Europe, in part, because there have been very few new mining projects permitted for decades. With the energy transition and climate change high on the European agenda, complemented by the recent adoption of the Battery Regulation and the Critical Raw Materials Act, policy and legislation in Europe now support domestic extraction, minerals processing and recycling.

– While mining on European soil is a high priority, it is also a conflicting one for host communities, in particular.

The research results are useful for both academics and practitioners. For academics, the reconceptualisation of SLO offers opportunities to test whether the importance of preconditions vary in different countries across Europe and also in different regions of the world. For example, because of the importance of preconditions at the societal level in Europe, there is little room for industry to manoeuvre around the relationship-building work because there is little than can be negotiated. In Europe, acceptance is largely defined as the fulfillment of the preconditions.

– For practitioners, to bolster the acceptability of preconditions, different government-industry contracting models should be identified and relevant ones tailored to Europe potentially implemented.

The research is based on a variety of data including fieldwork such as meeting with public authorities, industry representatives, and civil society leaders, as well as written material, such as mining sector good practice guidance and sustainability reports and documentation from governments.

Information on the public examination

Pamela Lesser will be defending her dissertation Scales of Trust. An Exploration of the Social Licence to Operate of Mining at the Societal Level with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland on Friday 24 January 2025 at 10 a.m. in lecture room B 126.

The opponent is Associate professor Matti Kojo from Lappeenranta – Lahti University of Technology and the custos is Associate professor Janne Autto from the University of Lapland.

The public examination can be followed online at https://blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi/ulapland/

The language of the public defence is English.

Information on the doctoral candidate

Pamela Lesser holds a Master of Arts degree in urban planning from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been working for government, consultancies and think tanks for 20 years and as a researcher at the Arctic Centre in the Arctic Governance Research Group for 11 years. She recently became a senior expert with the Research Development and Innovation Services unit at the Lapland University Consortium. Concurrent with her work as a researcher, Pamela was the Regional Lead at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), a global mining standard, in charge of raising awareness of IRMA within Brussels policy circles. Her research interests focus on sustainable mining practices in the north, particularly, the social licence to operate (SLO) concept and environmental impact assessment. Her thesis topic draws on both her academic and practitioner experiences, mirroring the development of the SLO concept as an iterative one continuously drawing on theory and practice.

Further information

Pamela Lesser, +358 40 484 4051, pamela.lesser(at)ulapland.fi

Information on the publication

Pamela Lesser (2024) Scales of Trust. An Exploration of the Social Licence to Operate of Mining at the Societal Level. Acta electronica Universitatis Lapponiensis 396. ISBN 978-952-337-464-5, ISSN 1796-6310

The permanent address of the publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-464-5